When the Las Vegas Aces reached the finals, the writing on the wall for the Phoenix Mercury was clear– never miss an opportunity. Of course, the back-to-back world champions from 2022 and 2023 have been known to make last-second shots to sweep a win from under any team. Sadly, in a game where the Valley saw one of their leading scorer go down, they experienced 4x WNBA MVP show her classic clutch shots as well, forcing fans to make their early predictions.

With 4:26 left in the game and the Mercury trailing by 10, Satou Sabally went for an offensive rebound on her miss. However, after her arm got tangled with Aces guard Jackie Young, she lost balance and fell hard, colliding with Kierstan Bell’s knee on the way down. At that point, the German was carrying the Mercury with a team-high 24 points on 8-of-15 shooting. She stayed motionless on the floor for several minutes as the arena fell silent. A Mercury staffer and teammate, Kalani Brown, managed to prop her up and guide her slowly into the locker room.

After the game, the team had no update to offer. Coach Nate Tibbetts told reporters, “I haven’t seen it yet, and I have not heard. She was not in the locker room with me.” He also admitted he didn’t know whether she would enter the concussion protocol. But now, ESPN reported, “Breaking: Phoenix Mercury star Satou Sabally has been diagnosed with a concussion and has been ruled out of tomorrow’s Game 4 of the WNBA Finals vs. the Aces, the team announced.”

In the first quarter, Mercury trailed 21-8 after the Aces went on a 17-0 run. But Phoenix responded with a 13-0 run of its own to tie the game. By the beginning of the fourth quarter, the Aces looked like they had control with a 76-59 lead, but Kahleah Copper’s 3-pointer closed the gap to 84-83 with 3:06 left. DeWanna Bonner’s three then tied the game at 86-all with 1:33 left and made two free throws with 1:01 left to tie it at 88. Mercury was on the brink of another comeback.

They did in Game 2 of the semifinals against the Minnesota Lynx, coming back from a 20-point deficit. They stunned the Lynx again in Game 4, returning after a 13-point deficit. 

But A’ja Wilson became their nightmare come true.

The 4x MVP took the entry pass with 0.3 seconds remaining and made a turnaround jumper to bring the Aces within one win of their third championship in four seasons. Wilson had a 34-point night lifting the Aces over the Mercury 90-88 in Game 3. With the Phoenix Mercury down 0-3 in the series and now missing Satou Sabally, their hopes of salvaging anything from the Finals look slim.

“I don’t know how many teams have come back from 0-3. Not many, right?,” HC Nate Tibbetts said after the game. “So I’m not going to sugarcoat that. We’ve got a tough road ahead, but we’ve got to take it one game at a time.”

This year, the WNBA finals have a 7-game format. Although it allows Phoenix to make a possible comeback and extend the series, with the lead that the Aces have, they only need one more game to win it all after ending their three-peat hopes last year in the semifinals. And that seems to be the general consensus on social media.

Fans react to Satou Sabally getting injured

At this point, it would’ve been wishful thinking to believe the Mercury still had a shot at coming back. They did pull off comebacks earlier in the postseason, coming from 0-1 down to beat both the Liberty and the Lynx. You’d still expect the Mercury to grab at least one win to salvage something from this series, especially after they erased a 17-point deficit against the Aces in Game 3. But with this latest setback, it’s starting to look unlikely. Fans seem to agree too, as many now believe a sweep is inevitable.

One fan wrote, “Congrats to the Aces on the sweep,” while another echoed the same sentiment, saying, “Damn, that’s a huge loss. This series is over.”

It really is a massive blow for the Mercury. Coming into this game, she had put up 109 points over her last five outings, averaging 21.8 points and 6.4 rebounds while shooting an impressive 45.5% from the field. Even in the last game, she dropped 24 points on 8-of-15 shooting…and the Mercury still fell short. So without her, how are they supposed to pull off a win now? So, for fans wondering, “Is this a big loss?” The answer is a resounding yes.

With Sabally out, players like Natasha Mack, whose minutes were cut after the first half of Game 3, and Kathryn Westbeld, who saw just four minutes after halftime, will need to step up. But can they match her impact? One fan on X summed it up perfectly: “Dayummmmmm😲🙄🤦🏾‍♂️🤔 she at least makes them in it.. now I don’t know if it’s gona be even close… Aces for the win and chip🏀⛹🏽‍♀️💪🏾👍🏾☝🏾”

Certainly, Sabally has been a great offensive force for the Mercury. In the regular season, she led the team averaging 16.3 points and 5.9 rebounds per game. In the postseason, she already improved her output, averaging 19 points and 7 rebounds per game.

But not all fans were ready to excuse the Mercury. With many pointing to how the Indiana Fever had given the Aces a tougher fight under even harsher circumstances. “Imagine losing your best player and going up against the Aces… down five more starters… taking them to the final game, fouling out your second-best player, losing your MVP candidate guard, and still pushing them to overtime,” one fan wrote. taking a dig at the Mercury.

The Fever, missing five key players including Caitlin Clark, still managed to match the Aces physically and push them all the way to Game 5, taking the contest into overtime. If it weren’t for Chelsea Gray dropping 8 crucial points in the extra period, the Finals might very well have featured the Mercury facing off the Fever.

Still, the 0-3 series scoreline doesn’t fully reflect how competitive the Mercury have been. Two of their three losses came by a combined margin of just five points, showing how tight this series really is. If not for the in-game tactical tweaks, like deploying the zone defense to limit Alyssa Thomas’ impact, made by the “chess adjustment master,” as Candace Parker calls Becky Hammon, the outcome of some of these games could have been very different.

Lastly, a fan said, “We can call it an injury ring 😭❤️.” Well, facing an undermanned Indiana Fever side and now the Mercury without Sabally can definitely give fans an excuse to use it, but the truth is you can’t take anything away from the Aces this season. No one gave them a chance when they were below the .500 mark midway through the season. And now they’ve taken down a fully fit Mercury side in the first three games, sitting just one win away from their third championship.